On Saturday, September 20th at Back Space Toronto we announced the winners of the 2014 Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creators.

Writer / Scénariste

• Kurtis Wiebe – Rat Queens 1-3, Peter Panzerfaust 8-15, Dia De Los Muertos 3
  “Lonesome” (Image)
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Cartoonist / Auteur

• Zviane – les Deuxièmes (Pow Pow)
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Artist / Dessinateur

• Fiona Staples – Saga 9-17 (Image)
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Cover Artist / Dessinateur Couvertures

• Julie Rocheleau
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Webcomics Creator / Créateur de Bandes Dessinées Web

• Jayd Aït-Kaci (with Christina Strain) – The Fox Sister
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The Dragon Award (Comics for Kids) / Le Prix Dragon (Bandes Dessinées pour Enfants)

This award recognizes the works which capture the attention and fascination of young readers, and help to create a passion for life-long reading. Works considered for this award are comic books and graphic novels by Canadian creators that are targeted at readers 14 and under. Nominees for this award are selected from the eligible creators lists by a team of educators led by Jennifer Haines, MA, B.Ed., who is also the proprietor of Guelph, Ontario’s The Dragon comic book shop.

• Couette tomes 2 et 3 by (Severin Gauthier) and Minikim (Dargaud)
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Gene Day Award (Self-Publishers) / Prix Gene Day (Auto-éditeurs)

Named after the late Howard Eugene Day (1951-1982), this award honours Canadian comic book creators or creative teams who self-published their work but did not have the books distributed by a third party such as Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. The nominees were selected from over 40 individual publications submitted for review before the deadline of May 12th, 2014.The winner receives an additional bursary.

• Steven Gilbert – The Journal of the Main Street Secret Lodge
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Harry Kremer Award (Retailers) / Prix Harry Kremer (Détaillants)

Named after the late Harry Kremer, original owner of Now & Then Books (in Kitchener, Ontario). The CCBCAA maintains a list of active comic book stores and a database of recommendations, referrals and secret shopper reports. A separate Retailer Award Committee overseen by Scott VanderPloeg and Anthony Falcone reviews the data and selects a short list of stores that have shown merit in a variety of categories.

For inquiries please contact them at:

kremerretailer@comicbookdaily.com

• The Comic Shop (Vancouver, BC)
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The T.M. Maple Award / Prix T.M. Maple

The T.M. Maple Award will go to someone (living or deceased) selected from the Canadian comics community for achievements made outside of the creative and retail categories who have had a positive impact on the community.

Jim Burke (1956-1994)

a fan who wrote more than 3,000 letters to comic book letter columns between 1977 and 1994. Burke’s letters were quite popular among readers as well as editors, and he wrote prolifically to a diverse number of comic publishing companies and titles. Burke originally signed his letters as “The Mad Maple,” but Marvel Comics editor Tom DeFalco abbreviated it to “T.M. Maple” to make it sound like a real name (thus circumventing a new policy at the company to stop printing letters submitted under pseudonyms). Burke took a liking to the new name and began using it exclusively (including variations like “Theodore Maddox Maplehurst”) until 1988, when in Scott McCloud’s Zot! #21 he revealed his real name. Burke published a fanzine about comics in the late 1980s. With artist/publisher Allen Freeman, Burke co-created the superhero Captain Optimist. Jim Burke had a fatal heart attack in 1994.

Debra Jane Shelly (1974-2014) was a comics fan, supporter, and self-described (and celebrated) nerd. She was known for her years of behind-the-scenes support at Toronto comic cons and other events celebrating comics and pop culture.An active member of many online fan communities such as the Comics Cube and the International Comics Society. In 2013, she was a volunteer at many conventions such as Fan Expo Canada, she contributed biographies and counsel to the Joe Shuster Awards, she co-founded the Comic Book Lounge’s Ladies Night, a seasonal event that has become a gathering point for women comic book fans in a community still largely dominated by and catering to a male audience. It was a first for the Toronto comics community, and came at a time when the critical question of diversity in comics (readers as much as creators and characters) was gaining serious momentum internationally.  Debra was known for her positivity, and did less to criticize the comic community’s shortcomings than to nurture the people, spaces, and ideas that were inspiring. In early 2014 she passed away from a epileptic seizure in her sleep.

“To so many people she was the first person we told of our successes and failures & she always knew the best way to respond -how to congratulate and console us. That kind of contribution doesn’t fit on a resume but it was felt throughout the community.”

–Alice Quinn, Ladies’ Night co-founder

Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame / Temple de la renommée Créateur Canadien de Bandes Dessinées

• CY BELL (1904-197?)
  Cyril Vaughn Bell was born in Peterborough on October 5, 1904. By the time he was six the family was in Toronto where his father worked as an Electrician for the local Streets and Railways. In 1929, along with his brother Eugene, he organized Commercial Signs of Canada mainly as a sign painting company. During the last half of 1941 and at the instigation of one of his young artists, Edmund Legault, Cy Bell’s company began putting out Canadian comic books to fill in a void caused by a parliamentary ban of the importing of American comics into the country that was put in place at the end of 1940. His first title was Wow Comics, and in the ensuing months he followed with six more titles, including Dime, Active, Joke, and Triumph Comics featuring such iconic characters as Nelvana of the North, Johnny Canuck, Speed Savage, Thunderfist, and The Penguin. In March of 1942, the company was incorporated as Bell Features and Publishing Company Ltd. and with its famous, trademark bell logo, the company’s output came to form one of the most recognizable set of books in Canadian war time production. During its peak years Bell Features produced about a hundred thousand comic books a week and employed over 60 artists. In 1947, Cy Bell wound up his company and turned the printing side of it over to his brothers leaving us one of the finest legacies in Canadian comics. Bell Features would continue without him until 1953. Bell himself operated a small resort hotel in Crystal Beach, ON until the mid-1960’s, at which time he returned to his roots and opened a small-scale sign business which he ran until his passing in the mid-1970’s.
• EDMOND GOOD (1910-1991)
  Edmond Elbridge Good was born on July 1 (ironically, now Canada Day then Dominion Day in Canada) 1910 in Saco, Maine to parents originally from the Maritimes. The family returned to Canada when Edmond was 10 and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. Edmond received his art training there and was hired as the first Art Director by Cy Bell for his comic publishing business. Good created his best known strip, Rex Baxter, as the lead feature for the new title Dime Comics in Feb. of 1942. He continued producing this feature and all the covers for Dime Comics until issue 13. After Adrian Dingle, Good did the greatest number of covers for Bell Features (Wow Comics 8-13, Commando Comics 1-6, and others. Good continued to work for Bell Features, even after Cy Bell hired Adrian Dingle as Art Director in the spring of 1942. Good also did a number of Canadian pulp covers during this period. He then left for work opportunities in the U.S. in late 1943. From 1944-46 he took over the “Scorchy Smith” newspaper strip from Frank Robbins and also worked on “Phantom Detective” in Thrilling Comics. Good was the original artist on “Tomahawk” when the character began in Star Spangled Comics in 1947 and worked on Dagar Comics from 1948-9. His longest run, and perhaps favourite work, was on Monte Hale Comics for Fawcett from 1949-53. In the mid-fifties he started his own small publishing company called Good Comics Inc. and created Johnny Law, Sky Ranger for its short run. He continued to do commercial art and wrote radio and television scripts in the fifties. At the end of the fifties he had moved his family to Florida hired as the Art Director for Tupperware at their head offices there, a position which he held until his retirement in 1974. In 1977 he moved from Orlando to Altoona. Edmond Good passed away on Friday, Sept. 13, 1991.
• TY TEMPLETON (1962-)
  Few comic artists, Canadian or otherwise, have had the consistent and varied career of Ty Templeton. Born on May 9, 1962, Ty blazed on the comic scene in 1984 writing and drawing the Vortex Comics series, Stig’s Inferno, a modern take on Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Ty eventually took on the role of editor of Vortex Comics, overseeing various series including the company’s flagship title, Mister X. A talented storyteller, Ty has worked for almost every major publishing company writing or drawing an array of well known characters including Superman, Spider-Man, Star Trek, The Simpsons, She-Hulk, Howard the Duck, Ren & Stimpy, Scooby Doo and a celebrated run on Batman Adventures. Ty was the Editor in Chief of Canadian publisher, Mr. Comics, hiring almost exclusively Canadian talent to produce the critically respected series, Revolution on the Planet of the Apes, Hoverboy, and Dan Slott’s Big Max. In addition to being a popular, gregarious ambassador of comics at Fan Conventions Ty is helping to train the next generation of Canadian comic artists through his popular series of comic book writing and drawing classes, Ty Templeton’s Comic Book Boot Camp. Presently Ty is the artist of DC Comics’ Batman ’66 Meets The Green Hornet and has a weekly webcomic ‘Bun Toons’.

About The Joe Shuster Awards

Established in 2004, The Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s first national and bilingual award recognizing outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics. The awards are named after pioneering Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, created the iconic super-powered hero, Superman. The name is used with the approval of the Estate of Joe Shuster – Michael Catron, Estate Agent.

For more information please contact Awards Director Kevin A. Boyd at kevin@joeshusterawards.com